Where Somebody Waits For Me
by GleeGeneration23
Summary: Anna is attacked on her way home from work and violently beaten. Peter picks up the pieces and he battles his feelings and both he and Anna try to recover. Some Trigger Warnings
1. I Walk The Line

**Hi, so here is another story, the first story for this particular fandom and the second in the Chicago Fandom. This is an Anna/Peter story and should take about six chapters in alternate point of views and does have some Trigger Warnings for Assault. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**And I hope that I can update sooner rather than later and that you enjoy this chapter and this story and the chapters that followed. **

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Where Somebody Waits For Me.

Anna is attacked on her way home from work and violently beaten. Peter picks up the pieces and he battles his feelings and both he and Anna try to recover.

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Chapter 1-I Walk The Line.

There is an attack, Anna tries to cope. Peter comes to the rescue. Sort of. AU and some violence attached.

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When the staff at Chicago Med had asked her who to call she had said his name without really thinking it. To be honest looking back she wasn't sure how she had even done that. Speaking had been hard, even those two little words because her throat had been so choked up and she knew without even asking for a mirror that there would be handprints forming and she would have a bruise the likes of which would take months to disappear from her body…and who even knew about her mind.

She had curled herself around the pillow that was on the bed careful not to disrupt any of the wires that were wrapped around her and careful not to cause anymore pain to her ribs which she knew at some point in the evening someone had stomped on, and Natalie perhaps sensing that she needed a moment shut the curtains around her and allowed her to cry a little in peace.

How long she had been in the bed she wasn't sure before Peter arrived. Anna could hear him before she saw him, she could hear his voice and through the rapidly spreading numbness that seemed to have taken her whole body in a vice like grip, she noticed that he sounded frantic.

For some reason through her cluttered brain she felt so incredibly touched and that brought a wave of tears to her eyes so fast that she couldn't rapidly blink them back but instead let them spill over. She wiped her fingers under her eyes and noticed absentmindedly that her mascara was running. Well…that was about as waterproof as a piece of paper in the rain.

Anna tried to keep her composure. She even thought that she was doing well but then the curtain was ripped almost violently to the side and she saw Peter Stone standing there his eyes wide and looking very much like he had just climbed out of bed. She took in the fact that his hair was rumpled and that he was wearing a black shirt that practically clung to his body over sleeping pants and a jacket. For a second she stared at him and then all of the emotions that she had been battling to keep down suddenly without warning exploded and she stared sobbing.

Peter stared at her for a second of a second and then he crossed the room and took one hand in hers.

"Anna" he said finally and she found she had to look away because a combination of that look on his face and his tone made her start sobbing again.

She knew she must look like a wreck.

Being attacked on the way home from work did that to you.

She'd been walking home when it happened. The bar she'd gone for her drink and her hour to herself before she went home and attempted to deal with the mess of laundry, bills and shopping that she had to wrangle into submission tonight, was smack in the middle of the bars that most of the legal professions in the State's Attorney's Office seemed to inhabit. She had gone for one of the more quieter establishments and when she had stepped out after two glasses of wine she found that the night was clear and warmish for Chicago and that it might be nice to walk to the Subway.

That was the mistake.

The attack had come from behind. She had fought, Anna had been to enough self defence classes to know how to fight and after the initial shock she found she could punch and kick with the best of them. That was when the second one had grabbed her. There had been too many blows at that point and all she could do was close her eyes and pray that it would be over soon.

They had left her there. They had said no words. They had given no reasons for why they had done what they had done and she had been forced to lie there in the gutter and wait until two stumbling paralegals had found her and had called for an ambulance. When she had finally been taken to hospital, she had been told over the ringing in her ears that she was in shock and the beginnings of hypothermia. When she had arrived at the hospital Sharon Goodwin had told her as they were cutting off her dress to see if her ribs had been as crushed as they had felt, that they were calling Chicago PD to report the assault.

The fact that it was assault and not rape was something that Anna knew she should be thankful for. Extremely thankful for. But she couldn't get her head around the events of the last three hours. She wanted to sleep but she knew that she would see it all as if it was a movie that was never going to stop. She wanted to go home but wasn't sure if her home was safe. And she wanted Peter…but that was another minefield for another day.

She bit her bottom lip feeling the skin split open again as Peter stared down at her with eyes so soft and so gentle that she found that she couldn't stare at him for long.

"Thanks for coming" she said finally her voice soft in the room and making her jump a little. Peter stared back at her for a second before he managed a smile that was better than anything that she could have managed at that given moment.

"Of course I came" Peter said managing to sound indignant and yet…safe all at the same time.

"I've had better days" Anna said finally cutting though the fog that was her brain in order to say something that might make a bit more sense. It seemed however that she was pulling her words out of her brain with increased difficulty as if it was glue and she was pulling the bits of macaroni of some artwork her niece would have made in third grade.

Peter said nothing but there was a tightening at the corner of his mouth which spoke volumes. His hand found her forehead and he placed his hand there tangling his fingers into the dark strands of hair and Anna felt her eyes—well her one eye—the other one being swollen shut—close of their own accord. She felt safe here. And really…Peter's hands in her hair was something she would admit even to herself in the crowded recess of her mind was something that she had been thinking about more and more. Because Peter Stone was a good man who made her feel things—things she shouldn't feel for her boss.

"Peter…can you take me home please?"

"Once they give you the all clear and you give a statement yeah Anna of course"

But Anna was already shaking her head. "I don't want to do that. I just want to go home."

Peter nodded and he pulled his seat a little bit closer. "I know swe…Anna I know you do. But you need to tell PD what you know because they can go out and catch the bastards that did this. Then I can prosecute them and they can spend the rest of their miserable lives in prison"

Anna closed her one eye again. She knew he was right. As much as she didn't want to admit it she knew he was right. Other victims had been in her shoes before and she had encouraged them to talk, to report and to testify. There was no excuse for her not doing the same for her beating…the problem was it was not until this exact moment that she could fully comprehend how difficult it was to report…anything. She wanted nothing more to do than to sink into her bed and pretend that this nightmare had not happened and yet she knew that was a pipe dream. Nothing from this moment on for her would be the same. Recovering from this was going to take a long time and she still didn't know _why_…why her…why tonight…

She might never know. That was something that she couldn't even begin to comprehend.

And then the fear of being in her own apartment was too much and she was sitting upright, letting out a horse gasp of pain as her ribs and her arm began to scream in protest at the sudden movement and Peter stood up reaching out to sooth her. She didn't want to be touched and so she all but threw herself backwards into the pillows.

"Anna…Anna…it's ok, it's ok I promise you"

But in her panic she was reaching out for him again and her hand found his own in the midst of her terror at what he was going to see as a massively inconsequential thing.

"I can't…I can't go back home…I don't…what if those…what if their there? What if those people are watching my apartment…I mean, I don't want to go home, Peter I don't want to go home!"

Peter's hands slid around her back then and he pulled her into a hug. He was gentle as he could be and Anna found herself resting her head on his shoulder for a second as he rocked her back and forth with a gentleness that she had not been on the receiving end of for a long time and which had always suspected him off but had never seen.

"It's ok Anna. You can come and stay at mine for a few days…at least until PD complete their investigation…I mean" he said suddenly back peddling as a look that could have almost been nerves suddenly flew across his face.

"I mean I understand if you don't want to. I can call Laura and see if she can come and you can stay with her. Or anyone if you want?" she noticed that his hand was on hers still on the bed and that he looked ready to drop from exhaustion. Anna was suddenly very aware that she had taken him from his bed after a nightmare day at the office and that here he was offering her a place to stay while she…while she…while she what?

"Can I come and stay with you?" she asked quietly. "I feel safe with you"

Peter let out a noise then that she could quite understand but when she looked up at him she saw that he was staring at the hospital curtains. For a second she watched him battle something deep inside him, seeing without really realising what was happening.

"Of course you can. You can stay as long as you need. You can take the spare bedroom. I'll call Jeffries as well and make sure that work can wait, I can spend the next couple of days working from home If that helps as well"

Anna nodded barely hearing what he was saying, all she knew was that she didn't have to go back to her apartment tonight and she clung to that with all that she had. It was her one assurance that while tonight had happened it had not seen her in a hospital room alone. She had friends…she had Peter.

And for the girl who used to be bullied on the playground when she was little for having no friends, that was saying something.

"I'll let the nurse know" Peter said gently before exiting the room. Anna watched him go and leaned back on her pillows her body thrumming with an ache she couldn't understand and a pain that she could all too well and knew that whatever happened next, she had Peter who was offering her more than she could ever repay him, even if her repayment was something as silly and utterly pointless as her love.

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**And there you are, I hope you all enjoy and I will try and get the next chapter up sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-Peter reflects on the phone call that changed his life, his feelings for Anna and his rage at what has happened...all while he helps Anna move into his apartment. **


	2. Long Odds

**Hi, so here is the second chapter. This story is intended to be only six chapters long so I hope to be halfway done sooner rather than later. Thank you all so much for your reviews and favouriting and following it really does mean a lot. **

**Next Chapter will be in Anna's point of view. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine, **

**And some Trigger Warnings for beatings and hospital atmosphere. **

**Please Read and Review. **

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Where Somebody Waits For Me.

Chapter 2-Long Odds

Peter reflects on the phone call that changed his life, his feelings for Anna and his rage at what has happened…all while he offers Anna the chance to stay at his apartment.

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He got the phone call just as he was settling in for the night. It was rather boring really. All his Friday night plans consisted off was a good long shower, a beer and bed.

And he was still young—as his father liked to consistently tell him whenever Peter couldn't duck the phone calls or felt compelled to talk to him after a nightmare of a case or whatnot—and this was his idea of Friday nights.

It wasn't like he couldn't go out. In his teenage years when he had been at the height of his baseball dreams he had gone out all the times to the clubs and to the dances and the other parties which had meant dropping your keys in the pot and then walking away. He had also done that in Law School, he could do it again, he knew he could it was just…

Well he knew what it was.

Anna Valdez.

He was pretty convinced she had ruined him for any other woman.

And it wasn't like he was even trying to fall completely head over heels for his second chair. Peter wasn't much of a machoistic in that regard. He had always prided himself in keeping his personal life and his professional life separate and wasn't a fan of dipping his pen in the company ink—so to speak. And yet over time working with Anna, she had gotten under his skin, into his heart and into his brain as if she was a part of his very skin. He needed her now, he needed to see her. He trusted her in a way that was frightening and in a way that sometimes kept him up at night.

Thank God she didn't know how completely head of arse in love with her he was. She'd probably run a mile. Anna still had a great career ahead of her. She was still young and had a chance of settling down without someone who was older than her, had more family issues than half of the people on the other side of the bench and she deserved more than him. Some broken down prosecutor who had seen more than his fair share of disappointments and who was going grey around the edges.

Or so he told himself when the drink kicked in and he looked at himself in the mirror.

Was it his problem as well that his bed was really comfortable? He had had a long day dealing with a case that had involved a gang suspect whose brother had promised the usual threat on the prosecutors and more to the point had looked straight at Anna when he had promised all sorts of shit. Usually they ignored them and them—as Anna had told him afterwards with a small smile that threats came with the job and if they got threats then they must be doing something right.

She had asked him to go out with him to the bar with the other Second Chairs but he had declined. There were other times he could go out with Anna that didn't include her friends who all thought that he was the best prosecutor in Chicago and that they could ply him with advice and drink and hope for the best. He was aware that he was attractive…he was also aware that some people would be interested in using him and he was not remotely interested in being a notch on a bedpost.

(Not when you can have Anna—the treacherous part of his brain thought)

Not that he thought about that—much.

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He had just settled down on his couch drinking his second beer and debating that age-old debate of whether or not he wanted pizza or Chinese for dinner when his phone rang. Of course, realistically in his profession you were on duty more times than you were off but it didn't stop him cursing whoever it was that had interrupted his nice quiet evening at home.

It was an number he didn't recognise. He was tempted to ignore it. He really was. But duty convinced him to answer it despite the sleep that was calling him.

"Hello…Peter Stone?"

Why did that voice sound familiar?

"This is April Sexton from Chicago Med"

Oh, that explained that.

"Yes?"

"It's Anna Valdez"

Peter rocketed up out of his comfy bed and into what he thought might be early heart failure. He found that he was gripping the edges of his bed and that he was clinging to an idea that wasn't really there. That this entire idea was a mistake and that he was imaging this phone call.

"Yes this is Peter Stone"

_Obviously idiot_…said the voice in his mind. _Otherwise whoever this is wouldn't be ringing you would they?_

"I have Anna Valdez in Trauma Room 3. It looks like she's been beaten and possibly assaulted and she's only asking for you"

And that was when he felt like his heart had stopped.

He didn't remember much after that.

He did remember practically throwing himself out of his damn comfy bed and into the nearest clothes that he could find but he did remember getting to Med and being swept by Doris into the nearest room off to the left of him where there…

There was Anna.

She looked like hell.

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Actually hell was a much better word than Anna looked right there and then. Lying on the bed she looked almost dwarfed by the side of the pillows and the white sheets and the tubes wrapped around her…well…it was an image that she couldn't forget anytime soon. She seemed almost diminished somewhat it was a nightmare to look at. Peter looking at Anna in that moment felt what was left of his heart break into little pieces, littler than little pieces and he couldn't stop himself from closing his eyes and wondering who would do such a thing to the angel that was Anna Valdez? Older than she was and as white as the pillowcase, her hair splayed out around her like some character from a book. Her face meanwhile was a mass of bruising.

Her eye was black and swollen and her mouth was red and sore at one end. There were bruises on her check and on her wrists and what looked like handprints on her throat. Someone had held her down and choked her and someone else had kicked the living daylights out of her.

The rage that he felt in that moment was so powerful he thought he was going to stagger sideways onto the floor. The red haze that seemed to get stronger and stronger made him shake. For a moment he thought he was seriously going to punch something.

This was Anna.

And some barely human _bastard, monster, animal _had beaten and choked her until she could barely move and here she was curled up in a hospital bed as if desperately trying to ward off the next blow that she was sure was coming.

He thought he was going to be sick.

She looked at him through her one good eye and managed a small smile, the tiniest smile in existence and that was when the damn broke for him. She needed him…Peter could…and would fall apart on his own but right now someone far more important than himself who needed him. His hands found without warning Anna's hair and he was smoothing down the black strands matted with blood and trying to smile even though his insides were breaking apart time and time again.

Listening to Anna's list of injuries made him feel sick again. He felt like kneeling down next to the bed burying his head into the lap of the woman he loved and screaming for her to forgive him. He had utterly failed her and this thought was so awful to him that he thought he might cry.

The only saving grace…the only saving grace in all of this was that when April had asked Anna very quietly if she needed a rape kit doing Anna had said no and Peter knew (just as he knew other things about his Second Chair—some important and some not so much) that she was telling the truth. He closed his eyes for a brief second and then opened them again trying to pretend that the thought of having to step out of the room, away from Anna was something that he would have struggled to comprehend. When he found out who had done this…

"Thank you for coming" she said quietly. Her voice was so quiet Peter had to strain to hear her.

"Of course I came" he said rather surprised that she had thought that he wouldn't. There was a long pause as he stood there and she stared at him. He could barely hear the rest of the conversation, that she wanted to go home and that she would have to give PD a statement. Anna closed her eyes again even as he promised that he would do the best that he could to put the animals behind bars.

She raised one broken and bruised hand and wiped her fingers under her eyes wincing as she touched her swollen one. Peter took it in his hand feeling the broken skin. She looked at him and he managed another smile. He could do this. He could stand next to her while she did this.

He didn't want to leave her alone and this was about her not him. He had no excuse.

Peter tried to calm her down as she worked herself into a panic about weather or not whoever was out there was still in wait for her. He tried to soothe her and then dropped in if she wanted him to ring Laura. Surely she would want the company of a girlfriend after something like this? She had rang him because he was her boss and Laura had a kid. She had rang him first after Judge Kenzie had been shot and killed right in front of her. It didn't mean that she wanted to stay with him in his apartment even as he offered feeling utterly foolish, like a teenager who couldn't string two words together.

"Can I come and stay with you…I feel safe with you…"

God did she have any idea how those words were to him? How much he felt like breaking?

He forced himself to mumble through a reply and then made an escape to call his boss. He kept walking until he was outside the ER, waited patiently until he was alone and then threw up all down the wall feeling tears burn at the back of his eyes.

He gave himself five minutes.

And then he called Jeffries.

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He held the car door open for her to climb out. Peter had called Laura to pick up some of Anna's things. The last thing he needed right now was to be in Anna's apartment surrounded by her things…the one place he had never really gone. There was a time and a place for him to be inside Anna's home seeing what made her, her.

This was not the time.

He didn't want to come across as some kind of creep and he was pretty sure that he would have done. Laura was better to do that, than he was.

Anna walked into his apartment without commenting on what she was seeing. He could see that the short walk had drained her of any colour that she'd gained and that she was shaking. She sat on the couch her arm in a sling, her face still a mess and her whole body giving the aura of a person on the brink of defeat.

"Do you want something to eat?" Peter asked feeling utterly, hopelessly useless.

Anna shook her head and then her face seemed to crumple. For a second Peter stared at her as she started crying and then he crossed the room everything be damned and wrapped his arms around her mindful of her injuries. She clung to him as she cried and it was all he could do not to cry with her because the woman that he loved was in pain and there was nothing that he could do to fix it other than his job and his job was the furthest thing on his mind.

They stayed like that the two of them for a very long time.

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**And there you are, let me know what you think. Hopefully I will be able to update sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-Anna tries to piece together the night she was attacked with some help from Laura. Peter and Anna adjust to the new normal of their shared living conditions and their battle towards their feelings. **


	3. Broken Mirror

**Hi, so here is another chapter. We are halfway through this little story which was only supposed to be six chapters so i am very pleased about that. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

**And I will try and udpate sooner rather than later. **

* * *

Where Somebody Waits For Me

Chapter 3-Broken Mirror

Anna tries to piece together the night she was attacked with some help from Laura. Peter and Anna adjust to the new normal of their shared living conditions and their battle towards their feelings.

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She had spent five days with Peter and already she felt like she was losing her mind. Of course, he had done nothing wrong. No matter what she wanted he was there. Coffee in the morning and at lunchtime and he cooked for her which was good as Anna still couldn't move her right arm above her ribs. He helped change the bandages and he was always there with a smile.

And as it turned out he was a much better cook than Anna would have imagined it. That first morning she'd come out in her old flannel pyjama's feeling hopelessly unprepared to find him there in a pair of old sweats and an old college jumper making omelettes at his gleaming kitchen. That night he had made pasta. How he had the time to do that from scratch with a cream sauce Anna didn't know. Sometimes she barely had time to get a shower before she collapsed in a tired mess in bed.

She slept in the spare bedroom, she used the shower whenever Laura came over to help and she was slowly beginning not to jump at shadows but the only thing was that living in such close proximity to the man that she had always harboured feelings for was slowly killing her in a way that getting attacked had never done. She didn't know how she was coping with it. Living with Peter and working with Peter were too entirely different things.

Working with Peter meant that she got to see the professional side to him, the side that fought like hell to see justice done. The side that she was used to, drinks after cases and moments when he was angry and passionate and yet moments where he was soft with victims.

Living with Peter was an entirely different matter. Living with Peter was Anna's very own version of heaven and hell wrapped into one. On one hand she loved the domestication of their relationship. She loved the fact that she could come down for dinner in her old clothes and Peter would be there with a smile. She loved the fact that he didn't press her for information on the man who had attacked her. She loved the fact that he mocked her when it came to her Netflix choices but at the same time wouldn't mock her for crying when Cedric Diggory was killed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was exactly what she had thought living him would entail and it was just as painful because it wasn't real.

Stupid she told herself, stupid.

But it changed nothing.

Laura had come around nearly three times a day since she had heard about the attack. Anna thought it was rather nice, they were not the best of friends, Anna had been the prosecutor and Laura had been the investigator and that had been enough over drinks after nightmare cases but Anna had not anticipated the care that had come after her attack. Antonio had sent a lovely casserole over that he openly admitted his daughter had made and whenever she wanted a shower (cast making life awkward to the extreme) Laura had been there without a pause helping her wash and condition her hair and then helping her with the blow dryer.

It was Laura who was pushing her in terms of an investigation. Peter couldn't. Either that or he wouldn't. Anna wasn't sure of the distinction but she knew that Peter wasn't asking her much. Of that she was glad. Everytime she closed her eyes she was seeing faces and punches and feeling kicking to her ribs. When she had mentioned that to Peter once she'd watched as he had turned away and muttered that he was there to support Anna. He had to turn away rather than look at her. He had found her that disgusting.

"That's shit" Laura told her emphatically when after too many glasses of wine that second night when Anna had begged her to come over. Peter had said he was meeting Mark and Antonio—he had looked so heartsick over leaving her that Anna had felt compelled to tell him to go least he wipe that look off his face—she was not worth staying around anyway. Not for a man like Peter Stone.

"Honestly Anna, that's shit. Of course he was going to stay with you. He…well…he thinks the world off you" she shook her head her short blonde hair tied behind her head in a small ponytail and almost quivering with indignation.

"That's…I mean…its what one does for a work friend isn't it?"

Laura laughed bitterly throwing the wine down her throat.

"Anna sunshine…he is as far from a work friend as there is. Surely you can see it? Peter worships the very ground that you walk on"

Anna had shook her head determined not to read much into what was being placed in front of her but her friend was relentless.

"Anna. He cares for you in a way that is not completely platonic. Trust me on that if nothing else."

Anna felt her eyes get wet again as the tears came to her so often these days. She shook her head. Peter Stone did not love her. He did not want her in that all encompassing way that she wanted him no matter what Laura told her. She took a sip of wine wincing as the alcohol hit her sore lip. She was too tired and to hurt to deal with this. Laura seemed to understand in that fabulous way that Laura just could and she poured them both another glass of wine without commenting on the fact that they should have both stopped a few glasses ago.

"Are you sure you don't remember anything?" Laura had asked finally. Anna shook her head. she wanted to remember something, anything but she couldn't. She didn't want to think about it, she didn't want to think about what had happened or what was lying ahead when Peter and Antonio and Laura where all dedicated to fighting and finding the men who had attacked her. She should care. She knew that she should care but the fact was that she was too tired. Anything she could remember she told Laura who consistently told her that no little detail was too little.

The fact that one of her attackers had a tattoo of a giant snake up his arm was nothing to her and yet Laura was scribbling it down on the pad that she carried with her confidently nodding whenever she warranted it. Laura who had been there when she had needed her. For if Anna was being honest she didn't care much right now, all she cared about was the combination of her pain killers working and if it was the fact that she was so tired some days she could barely lift he head from her pillow. She found that she was tired all the time.

She didn't want to think about how she was feeling unless she had too and right now she didn't have to. Right now all she had to think about was getting better.

Or at least that was what she was telling herself.

The problem was bits and pieces of the night were coming back in the most inopportune places. She had been in the shower with Laura helping her navigate a cast and a shampoo bottle when she remembered so vividly it was like she was standing there feeling the kicks. She could remember the eyes staring down at her as she had looked up before she'd gotten a boot to the eye.

"Anna?"

That voice with it's increased panicked edge belonged to Laura. As if from a long way away Anna looked up hearing before she saw her friend crouched down next to her uncaring of the fact that she too was now wet from the spray of the shower. Anna stared at her for a second trying to work air back into her lungs, not trusting herself to speak until she had managed to breathe for ten seconds without bursting into tears.

Finally when she thought she had control over herself she spoke.

"He had brown eyes, brown hair and a tattoo"

"Who did?"

"One of them…the main one…I mean I know I said both of them had tattoos but this one wasn't a snake like the other one it was definitely a gang tattoo"

Laura nodded her expression not changing from hopefully encouraging there was something about her that made Anna want to impress upon her the pressure that she was under trying to remember and yet coming up with nothing, though she supposed that Laura already knew.

"We prosecuted the leader of a gang three days before" she said slowly. "I don't…I don't remember the details that well but I do remember Peter took the case apart from the bail hearing which I did."

"It wasn't a gang leader" Laura said finally switching off the shower and taking a seat on the toilet lid. "It was his brother, he was killed in prison by a rival gang and then you went after the leader"

Anna stared at her, her head back to throbbing again. "So you think that that's why this happened to me"

"Peter does"

"Peter's not told me he's looking into this" Anna said quietly. Laura wrapped her in a towel and then helped her to her feet. She was shivering Anna realised and not from the cold.

"Of course he is" she said shaking her head as if Anna was once again missing a crucial point. "Anna the man cares for you more than he cares for himself but he's been like a man possessed with this case. He's always coming down and asking what we've got, he's got Antonio and me claiming a massive amount of overtime on this case alone. Trust me. He wants these bastards caught, he wants them prosecuted. If Mark could get away with it he'd prosecute himself."

Anna nodded hearing and acknowledging what she was being told but unable to do much about it.

"I feel broken" she said as she sat down on the spare bedroom. "I know I should be relieved that I'm alive and that they haven't won or that they didn't rape me and believe me Laura I am so relieved about that but…it doesn't change how broken I feel"

"And you and I both know it gets better. How many victims have we both counselled on that? And since when was it bad to admit that you're not ok. I do it twice a week when I go to NA sometimes more. We all need help, nobody can do the jobs that we do alone"

Anna nodded again dressing in a pair of sweats and letting Laura brush and then tie back her dark hair.

"So what happens now, with the investigation?"

Laura sighed. "We have leads. I don't want to tell you about them in case it compromises the testimony but we have leads. The whole investigators office is working on this. I know it's moving slowly now but we are really working on finding out who did this."

Anna nodded leaning back on the pillows of Peter Stone's spare bedroom.

"I love him you know" she said. She felt safe telling Laura this. "Peter"

"Yeah I figured. You should tell him. You might be surprised by his reaction. Somehow with the way he looks at you I don't think that you will be rejected."

Anna shook her head wiping her fingers underneath her eyes again.

"I'll get you some painkillers" Laura said leaving the room. Anna nodded hardly hearing her. She leaned back and turned on the one side that didn't ache and stared out the window wondering if what Laura was saying was the truth. She thought about it until she fell asleep and when she woke up she knew that Peter was home and in the kitchen. Somehow she wasn't afraid when she was in the same room as him.

She stood up wincing as she caught sight of herself in the mirror. There was no way that Peter Stone could be in love with her. The very idea was ridiculous.

But even as she walked outside to the living room and was rewarded with a gloriously soft smile she found that she couldn't help but think on what Laura had said about telling him how she felt. There was a pause where she stood there and then her courage failed her and she sat down at the bench with a soft "Hi".

Right now she felt safe. Right now that was all that mattered.

* * *

**And there you are. I hope you enjoy this chapter and i will update sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-Peter attempts to sort of the mess of this case, Antonio knows things, an arrest is made. **


	4. Memory Has As Many Moods As The Temper

**Hi, so here is another chapter. I hope you like it. There are two more chapters to this story left so I hope to have it done before the beginning of December so...fingers crossed. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter. **

**Please Read and Review and let me know what you think. **

* * *

Where Somebody Waits For Me

Chapter 4-Memory Has As Many Moods As The Temper.

Peter attempts to sort out this mess of a case as well as his own feelings. Antonio knows many, many things and an arrest is made.

* * *

They had a lead.

Or at the very least they had something Antonio said was a lead.

It was supposed to be a good thing. Of course catching the bastards responsible for hurting his…no Anna was a good thing. It would give some satisfaction to the blood that was smouldering under his skin, it would give him some satisfaction to put a face to the nameless image that he pummelled into his punching bag every night before he went home his knuckles sore and hardened despite the gloves that he wore. He bore it all as some sort of punishment because if he had been half the man his own father had been then he would have seen this coming, or more to the point he would have taken this beating for her. If the lead Antonio was following was right then it had been his case, his tough sentence and by rights his beating that the woman that he loved had received in his place.

But there was a small part of him that was so unbelievably selfish. Because a small part of him wanted her to stay with him in his apartment and he knew that the second that her old place was declared safe she would leave him and if truth be told Peter wasn't too sure how he was going to deal with that certainty.

He wanted Anna to gain her independence back of course he did. He wanted her to go back to her home and to live her normal life. He wanted it so that this whole ordeal would one day be a distant nightmare and that she could sleep soundly in the knowledge that the bastards that had done this too her were rotting in a jail cell for the rest of their miserable lives.

But there was a part of him that really didn't want her to go.

The month (for it had been a month know hadn't it?) where she had been in his apartment had been the best that Peter had ever had. Granted they were still the same professionals as they had always been but there was the fact of the matter was that he had come to live with Anna in a way that he had never come to live with any other woman before. He had in the short time that they had been living together gotten used to the idea that she was in his apartment, in his life, in his heart. It was so pathetic, how he could delude himself into thinking that she was here because she wanted to be rather than because she needed to be.

_But he had gotten used to it. _

Peter had gotten used to waking up to find Anna sleepy eyed in the kitchen, he had learnt that she had gotten used to drinking one coffee almost silent and the coffee as black and as bitter as she could make it but that when she had her second coffee (liberally sprinkled with milk and sugar) she was a lot more coherent.

He had gotten used to watching her scrape the mess of dark curls into a small bun or a messy ponytail while he made whatever it was with eggs because he knew that she loved eggs for breakfast having asked Laura what she knew of Anna's eating habits.

_(Well he had always said he was pathetic, hadn't he?) _

He knew that now the cast was off she was slowly returning to checking her emails and once when he had come home from work he knew that the muffins in the fridge had been store bought. But he was so used to her. He knew that she smiled whenever he cooked her steak, she liked mushroom in her ravioli, and she liked a cream sauce in her pasta. She loved garlic bread with cheese and she took her time in the shower so that Peter was tortured with the images of what she might be doing in there. She laughed at his choices of Netflix and didn't mock him when he confessed that he liked Law and Order SVU and other random shows like Grey's Anatomy and 9-1-1. Some nights she would sit on his couch in her pyjama's and that smile that had on some days been the reason why he could lift his head from his desk and smile even when his mind and his heart were breaking.

He knew that she liked to keep ahead of the law journals and the articles and that he had, had them delivered to his house despite the fact that he had never really been interested in them. He knew enough to know that he was acting completely out of sorts but he also knew that he didn't care. If he got Anna to smile again then it was worth it.

The worst part was the little domestic day to day things that constantly got to him. The little things such as the way she put salt on her mushrooms and the way that she smiled whenever he mentioned something funny that had happened at work. Her perfume seemed to seep into his apartment, the jasmine scent and the smell of her deodorant. Her toiletries were in his shower, her shampoo and her conditioner were next to his own hair care products. There was a body lotion on the edge of his sink and two toothbrushes in his tooth mug. All and all to any stranger who had managed to walk in who had not known the story he would have seen a man and a woman who certainly on his part adored each other living side by side.

And he would be wrong. And that cut to his flesh and bone until there was nothing left to cut into it time and time again. Because that was what he wanted. He wanted nothing more than to come home to find Anna in her old clothes pottering around his apartment as if it was her home. He could delude himself into thinking it was real right up until she'd say goodnight and go across the hallway into his spare room with a soft smile that pulled at the healing cut across her lip and Peter would be left to stand in the darkness seeing her walk away and feeling like shit for lusting after a woman who was still so hurt.

It was going to take a long time to get over this. It was going to take a long time to get over Anna and her presence in his apartment, her smell that seemed to be everywhere, the shampoo and conditioner in his shower and the scrub bar that he didn't understand that she laughed at him for not understanding. It would be hard to not see her in his car each morning, grab her coffee and roll his eyes as he saw the sugar and the syrup that she dumped in her coffee and then take her to the hospital to get her cast off. The first time she had passed her physical and the damn thing had come off she had jumped up and down a little in glee and had hugged him and Peter had gotten a face-full of dark hair which smelt of coconut and was soft to the touch and he had to take a deep breath and resist very hard the urge to rub his face in that glorious scent and do something so unprofessional she would never talk to him again.

Her bruises were fading as each day and he knew that their time as roommates or such were over. The thought of that was heartbreaking though he knew that it was the natural progression of events. The whole thing was a mess, he was a mess. Peter wanted Anna to stay with him and yet he hated himself for it, for protesting the natural way that this case would continue. Antonio would find the bastard who had attacked Anna, Laura would slam him into the wall and then get him a confession, he would spar with Mark who had sent Anna some flowers, a bottle of wine and a note that Anna wouldn't let him see but that had driven her to tears, and then Peter would put the bastard on trial and would have gotten the max and then all would have been as it should.

Peter was scum.

* * *

"Your not" Antonio said one night. Peter had gone to the nearest bar and then had drowned himself in so much scotch that the bartender had, had to call Antonio to come and pick him up even after taking his keys.

"I am" he said pouring himself another scotch from his second bottle of the night. Antonio rolled his eyes looking rather like he wanted nothing more to do than to be in bed and then watched as Peter downed the drink so fast that the burn didn't even touch the insides of his throat.

"No, your just a man who loves a woman whose been hurt. Nothing wrong with that Peter. Nothing wrong with wanting to protect her. Certainly nothing wrong with wanting to love her. World could do with a little more love in my opinion. Besides you and her would make cute kids"

Peter shook his head trying not to think about what it would be like to have kids with Anna Valdez. He had carefully not thought about that fantasy unless he was so hammered he could barely think straight and the images unbidden of Anna swollen with his child and the dark haired little girls and boys who would contradict him over dinner came to mind and then he would wake up, curl in on himself and remind himself very firmly that, that would never happen and that he needed to get a grip on himself. That never seemed to happen but…

Well at least he was trying.

That had to count for something.

Right?

"Look" Antonio said finally leaning forwards so that they were facing each other. "I don't want to tell you this while your shitfaced, but chances are Mark's gonna do it in the morning. Laura made an arrest on a gang member this afternoon. He had Anna's handbag in her possession. He caved once she mentioned a life stretch, he knows the bastard that does it. He knows that he's going to have to make a deal. Peter…he's a member a street gang that works downtown Chicago. You know you prosecuted his leader a few weeks ago. That was his follows sending a message. Probably got Anna because they though kicking the shit out of a woman would scare you. It's Diego Florez. You got his kid brother on remand remember"

Peter did, he remembered the case. He remembered it like it was yesterday because if truth were told that was where his mind had gone when he had, had chance to think beyond the worry that had come when he had thought about Anna and what she was going through. He felt like crying again though he testified it to the booze running through his veins.

"I want him in remand, far away from anyone that could change his story" he said quietly. Antonio nodded. "I know. It's taken care off. Don't worry. You just focus on putting the bastard behind bars, and then go home and tell that woman that you love her and that you want to be with her for the rest of your life and put us all out of our misery"

Peter snorted. "She doesn't feel like that for me" he said finally blinking back the tears. Antonio rolled his eyes so hard Peter wondered weather or not they would be stuck there permanently. He watched his friend with a detached interest as he seemed to be struggling against something unnameable. God he was so fucking drunk, wasn't he?

"You know" Antonio said finally. "I worked with both Adam and Kim and Jay and Erin and neither of those four gave me half as much grief as you and Anna have done. For god's sake man just go and tell her you love her, put us all out of our misery."

Peter didn't say anything. He was not sure there was anything that he could say to that.

* * *

That night he came home stumbling a little. He peered into Anna's room. She was asleep her dark hair tumbling over her face, her whole body curled into the bed covers as if she had clutched them around her. Peter suddenly felt like shit. He had told Anna he was going out that night and she had smiled and had said that he deserved it. She had said that she was alright that he was going out and that she would be fine alone. He wondered if she had simply been placating him.

"Hey" he hissed feeling utterly stupid. "It's me. You asleep?"

_Of course she is you idiot. What did you think she was doing in bed? No don't think about that. Of course she doesn't want to be with you when you think about lusting after her like that? Good God Peter. _

There was a sense of recklessness born no doubt of the scotch that was running through his system like it was liquid gold that compelled him to speak.

"I love you, you know. Though I know you don't love me"

And with that he shut the door and left the room in a soft kind of darkness.

Unbeknownst to him as soon as the door shut behind him Anna snapped her eyes open.

She had heard every word.

* * *

**And there it is, I hope to update sooner rather than later. **

**Next Chapter-Anna thinks on what Peter said as he brings forwards the prosecution of her attacker. A confrontation is had.**

**And I hope you enjoy. See you next time for the penultimate chapter and the last in Anna's Point of View. **


	5. Protection

**Hi, so here is another chapter, the penultimate chapter, i apologise for the lateness of this chapter but i have recently started a new job and therefore that has been my priority. I will however try and publish the last chapter as soon as i have had it written. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this little story. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

Where Somebody Waits For Me

Chapter 5-Protection

Anna thinks on what Peter has said as he brings forwards the prosecution of the man who attacked her. A confrontation is had.

* * *

Anna had laid awake for the whole night after that torn between utter despair and the knowledge that came when you were hugging a delightful secret within you.

What Peter had said she was unsure about. Laura had told her that Peter was in love with her but Laura though a good friend had a track record with relationships that made Bella Swan look good. Her last divorce had ended with her developing an addiction to pills that had not gone away despite how hard she had tried. Anna who had never judged Laura for that had always wondered why her friend was convinced that she and Peter were in love with the others and yet blind and should be together.

And she was so…so…in love with him.

She wanted to tell him, even is she had to leave the Cook County DA's office she found that she wanted to tell him. Being utterly brutalised did that to you and she found that she wanted to live her life regardless of what the consequences of her confession could be. She was a good lawyer she knew that. She was successful and she had convictions and more than once she had been head hunted by a private firm. Litigation was not something she really wanted to get into but she would do so if it meant saving what was left of her dignity.

But she knew that it was time to speak.

Being kicked into unconsciousness did that too you.

Her face was healing, her arm was out of it's sling and there was hope that she was still the same woman underneath the red skin and the bruises and the cuts that were still healing and scabbing over. She found that she was trembling when she thought about telling him—with a combination she could later name as both fear and desire. She wanted him, she felt that she was ready to be that close again with another man. Her dating life hadn't been the best anyway. And Peter…well…he had walked around his apartment after his run half naked dripping with sweat in a way that had made her dry mouthed. She had known then that the part of her that had wanted him was undamaged. That the men who had beaten her and spat at her and had sought to degrade her had not achieved their goal in diminishing her.

She had won that battle.

Anna Valdez was still Anna Valdez.

And she loved it.

She clung to it when the nightmares became real again. She was still herself. She was still Anna. She was still the same woman she had always been just with a few bumps and bruises. She found that in that moment she was clinging to this. She was clinging to it with all that she had.

That night she lay their in the dark watching the frost on the window, her legs curled around her and the hot water bottle cooling on her stomach and wondered what her life would be like if she took the bull by the horns (so to speak) and tell him how she felt. Perhaps there was a chance after all, he had not asked her to move out.

That morning he had been gone when she had woken up with only a note on the table to say that he had been called into work for something urgent. Anna stared. Mark never called people into work on a Sunday unless something so unspeakably horrible had happened. The fact that Peter was rushing off meant that he had just learnt something and her happy moved evaporated. She knew that she was going to testify, that she had to testify but the fact of the matter was that she was still scared about being in the same room as the man that had done this to her. At seeing the man who had hurt her and learning the reason behind it. She was scared and she wasn't ashamed of admitting it.

And she was in love. She was so in love it hurt.

She wanted Peter. And drunk or not Peter wanted her for something.

She waited that night for him to come home. For the first time since the attack she took pride in her appearance. She washed her hair, she applied a quick face mask and she changed out of her old ratty law school jumper and sweat pants into jeans and a jumper that was short enough to show a little bit of the toned stomach she worked so hard to keep. She didn't bother with make up. To be honest she only used it for work and even then she used it sparingly. But she did take her straighteners to her hair and attempt to make it look more like her usual professional self rather than the mess of dark curls that it had been before she had gotten that damn cast off. She had long since stopped using her hair and beauty products. Trying to straighten hair one handily never worked well.

If he noticed that night when he came in then he didn't comment on it. Anna already had the wine out and she noted that Peter took one glass and downed it in one before muttering something about getting changed into something more comfortable.

Anna sat there and waited patiently for him to come out. She was well vested in the moods of Peter Stone. One way or another they were going to have this conversation. Even if she had to drag him out of his room and ask him point blank. She was brave enough to do that.

God she hoped he was brave enough.

She downed her own wine glass and poured two more glasses just in case though. If this went wrong, if Peter had been drunk last night and she had completely misread the relationship then she was going to be mortified in a way Peter finding her at the hospital with her ass on show through that gown couldn't compete with.

When Peter came out he was still wet from his shower in a shirt that clung to the wet skin and made her mouth go a little bit dry. She watched him with eyes that she knew where wide and big over her wine glass. He didn't comment on the fact that she was looking, and he would have to be blind not to notice that she was looking at the abs that clung to his shirt and the sweats that clung to his hips. Granted she had, had a couple of glasses of wine before he had arrived but there was something else that made her more aware of her surroundings. Something else that made her look at him and acknowledge what she was seeing. Something that made her feel brave.

It was like she had gone through hell and realised that she could still keep going.

It was a powerful feeling.

"Lasagna's in the oven" she said smiling. Peter nodded his hands twisting in his lap and there was something about that look that seemed familiar to Anna, as if he was debating what to say, as if there was something that he desperately needed to say and yet didn't know how.

"Anna…look, there's something that you need to know. We…err…today…we got the guy"

Anna who had just chosen that time to take a sip of wine spat it over the napkin as the shock hit her. She had not been expecting this tonight and she found that all of a sudden she was shaking violently as if she was coming down with a cold. She forced herself to stop shaking and look Peter in the eye as he came around the small island in his kitchen, turned the oven off with one fluid moment and then wrapped one arm around her so that she could rest her head on his shoulder and close her eyes and try not to think about the monsters that had suddenly become all too real.

"It's ok" he said firmly. "I promise you Anna, I won't let them hurt you. It was a gang attack" he said as if he couldn't stop himself or stop the words that were spilling out. "I put the leader of a gang in the South Side on trial a month ago and then I went after his little brother. This is retaliation and they thought it would hurt more if they went for you rather than me. They were right of course, had I known what was going to happen…Anna I promise you that I would have taken the beating without a second's pause, I'd have done it gladly if I could have stopped this from happening to you. This is my fault, all of it is my fault and I can only apologise for it."

Anna closed her eyes.

"I'm gonna have to see him in court" she had known it was coming. She had known it was coming from the very beginning because there was no way that Peter Stone was not going to go after the bastards that had done this to her and there was no way that she was not going to have to testify. She had known that when she had made the decision to have the nurses ring him from her hospital bed. But the thought of actually doing it brought her right back to where she had started and all she wanted to do was to curl around Peter's body and pretend that she didn't have to go on the stand and explain to twelve strangers what it was like to have the shit kicked out of her.

"I know I should do it" she said finally into the softness of Peter's old law school T-Shirt. "I know I should do it. I know I have to do it. Don't get me wrong I want these bastards behind bars as well but the thought of seeing them again. Peter you…I don't want to think about it. I don't want to have to feel it all over again."

Peter shifted a little so she was closer to him and then she felt rather than saw the kiss that he pressed into her hair and the way that his nose seemed to press against her forehead before it was replaced with his cheek, pressed so hard into her skull that she could feel the bone press to the top of her head.

"I know sweetheart I know, if I could take this burden from you I would"

"If they get away with it then I will never be safe" Anna predicted. She could have focused on his pet name for her, on the desperation she felt and the need to hear it be said over and over again but she didn't. Instead she concentrated on the practical answers to practical questions.

"When would this take place?"

"Trial date is the middle of next week. Anna I can go over it with you, I can help you, I promise you…"

"Do I have to move out? I mean it's hardly gonna look professional if I'm in the room across the hallway as you prosecute these…people…"

"You move out" Peter said after a pause "When you want to, and not before. Anna. I am so sorry this happened to you. Had I known that this would have happened then I would have never have let it get this far. I would have nipped that prosecution in the bud as soon as I had come face to face with it. I would have taken the Defence's deal"

"You did your job" Anna said through numb lips. And that was true. She couldn't hate Peter for making the decision that she would have made had she been in his position. She too would have took the case to trial. Hell she had argued for it at the time. She couldn't blame Peter for that decision. She had done and would have done exactly the same.

"Anna" Peter said finally. Anna looked up at him well aware that her careful façade of trying to be normal, of her plan to ask him if what he had said last night was true. She found that as she looked up at him in that moment she didn't need to ask him because she could see it in his eyes. It seemed that, that moment she could see what Laura had told her was there but she had never believed. She could see that love burning there, the desperation, the desire.

She didn't care that she was still aching, that her ribs were still bruised and that she was as far from pretty in her mind or that her whole body was shaking with some unnamed emotion. All she cared about was that Peter was looking at her as if she was the only woman in the world. For a second they stared at each other and then she saw Peter's eyes flicker downwards and then back up as if he couldn't help himself. Anna didn't need telling twice. She wanted this, she wanted to be loved, she wanted Peter to be loved and she wanted nothing more to do than to take control, to be happy.

And that was what she was going to do.

She moved forwards just as he did and smashed their lips together in an alright searing kiss. They were melded together, her tongue tangling with his tongue and when she found his lip with her teeth and bit down on it Peter groaned into her mouth, pulled her onto his lap and then wrapped one hand into her hair clinging onto it as if it was the last thing that was grounding him to this earth. Anna found her hands around his neck feeling the strong muscles of his shoulders flexing under her touch and she continued kissing him, welcoming the bliss that came with everything that she had ever wanted.

She had always thought of that fireworks kissing crap as a myth. Never before had she realised that it could be true.

Right now she realised she was wrong.

Fireworks did happen.

When air forced herself to let go she leaned back her ribs twinging a little.

Peter watched her with wide eyes.

Anna stared at him for a second and then shrugged. The oven was off, the food would keep, life was far, far too short.

"Bed?" she asked finally. Peter stared at her and for a second Anna was sure that she had ruined it. For a split second only.

And then Peter nodded surging up with a skill that she didn't know he had and a strength she didn't know he possessed so that her legs were around his waist, her arms around his neck and he was staggering backwards into his bedroom, down onto his bed and into mind-shattering, bone-shaking pleasure that did feel a lot like love.

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**Next Chapter-The Final Chapter-Anna and Peter debate what to do the morning after, Anna's attackers go on trial. A decision is made and there might just be a happy ending in story for everyone. **

**Enjoy. **


	6. Balance

**Hi, so here is the FINAL CHAPTER! Thank You all so much for sticking with me through this story and I hope you enjoy this chapter. As always I do take a little break from fandoms but I will be coming back to this fandom at some point and already have several stories floating around in my notebook. **

**Disclaimer-Nothing is mine. **

**Please Read and Review. **

* * *

Where Somebody Waits For Me

Chapter 6-Balance

The Final Chapter. Anna and Peter decide what to do in the morning after. Anna's attackers go on trial. A decision is made and there might just be a happy ending in this story for everyone.

* * *

It took Peter exactly five seconds to realise what had happened when he woke up and realised that he had am armful of a naked Anna Valdez.

Actually, he was rather impressed that took that amount of time for his brain to catch up and remind him that this was not some sort of dream that his brain had thought up when he was lonely and too full of red wine for his own good.

He looked down for a second and upon seeing her asleep her head half on his arm and half on his chest, and he allowed himself a smug little smile. If all was to be taken into account then he knew that he had done good last night. It was chauvinistic to think of it like that but he had see her reaction to him, he had heard everything Anna had said and had seen her entire body convulse beneath him. There was no way he could not forget that. He was certainly not going to forget that he was the one that had done that to her.

But that left the question of what was going to happen now. He had no idea what he was going to do because deep down he knew that the ball was not in his court. Of course, if he could have had his way they would continue to live together, work together, sleep together. He could come home to Anna instead of an empty cold apartment. He could do the whole marriage thing and have kids something which had never appealed to him before.

With Anna it did. It was cheesy and soppy but it was what it was and he knew that. Anna was the only person he had ever thought about having those kinds of feelings for. Having that kind of life with. Most of his youth he'd been with younger girls, married women or on more than one occasion drunken threesomes with girls who were either drunk or if he didn't bother looking, hookers. He found that he wanted nothing more to do than to ignore all of those mistakes, dealing with the false coin that was lust and vanity and the need to be on top when there was this—this that rang of pure true gold.

Of course if Anna didn't want him like that…and despite what she had said last night that was always a possibility then he found that he could be just this. It would chip away at him bit by bit as he continued but he found that he could be a bed warmer for her if that was all she wanted from him—he'd had the first hit of the drug that he had craved for a very long time. He wanted nothing more to do than to keep riding the high but if he didn't then…then…then he knew that the withdrawal would be the worst thing that he had ever lived through—getting a taste, a look, a moment in the future that he wanted only to have it ripped away from him without warning…

He tightened his grip on Anna just thinking about it.

She stirred slightly against him her breasts pressing into his chest and Peter bit his lip trying to use the pain to focus on things that he didn't need to think about right now. If he was really, really good about this then he might be able to keep this. If he wasn't…well…at the very least he could offer his battered heart and see what Anna would be willing to take for it. Even if she only wanted his body. He would take that. He was so far gone he would admit to anyone who was listening that he would take anything.

Anna woke up so deliciously sleepy that Peter could imagine that it was a regular occurrence. That he was lucky enough to wake up to see Anna in his bed every morning, not just this one. He didn't say anything. If his world was going to end soon then he would be damned if he did not enjoy the last few seconds.

Anna looked at him before she pushed herself up on her elbow to stare at him. For a second that was all it was, the two of them staring at each other and then Anna reached out to run a finger down the side of his face.

Peter did his best not to shudder with some sort of mad desire that was racking through him. He really did.

Anna watched him for a very long second.

"Peter" she said finally. "I know what I want, I know what last night was to me. I know what it was to you, at least I think that I do. The question is does it mean the same thing to you? Because if it does then I don't need to have a big conversation about it. I've seen the end of my life, I've lived through thinking I was going to die, or worse. I know what I want. I want you. If you don't want me, tell me know. If you do…tell me now too…"

She finished the conversation by folding her lip between her teeth and though it took Peter a second to realise that he was being handed his dreams on a platter (and really could you fucking blame him?) he surged forwards and sealed the deal—so to speak—with another kiss that led to…well you know.

Needless to say he and Anna did not prep for the trial that day. Actually come to think of it they didn't really make it beyond the bathroom unless you counted getting the take out food. There were other more important things to deal with.

* * *

Laura knew. Peter knew that she knew the second that she had seen Anna and him standing together as they walked into the courthouse. The older woman had seen them together despite Peter trying so hard to make sure that they were on the downlow. The last thing that he had wanted was to do any damage to the case and he was sure that the prosecutor sleeping with the victim would do that.

Actually he knew.

He would not have that on his conscious, he just wouldn't.

He loved the woman beside him too much.

But either way Laura knew that they were together. He met her cool blue gaze on the stand as he talked through the case with her and he knew that she knew. She jerked her chin a little as if to tell Peter that she approved but if he hurt her friend she'd bury him in a shallow grave somewhere near the Docks and sleep like a baby in the aftermath. Peter understood.

He was still somewhat terrified though.

Watching them cross examine Anna was something else. Peter suspected that he might have jumped in more than he would have done if it was any other defendant but he had to admit that he was caught on the raw here.

Thank God he managed to keep it professional. The defence never once mentioned the fact that Anna was living in his apartment though weather or not it was because he didn't know or because he was too naïve not to know was another matter entirely.

Peter didn't care. Once he got the bastards to admit why they did what they did it didn't matter. Nothing mattered beyond that. Only that he had gotten them.

The rest of it was easy from that moment on.

It was strange that they didn't ask the question that was staring at them in the face. Peter chalked it down to either an incredible amount of luck or the fact that he was so good at hiding his feelings that even if he had gotten what he had wanted for so long he was still able to hide it.

Actually if that was true then maybe he and Anna could keep working together. A prosecutor was only as good as the second chair and while he knew that Anna deserved her promotion to first chair he also knew that he and her even before they'd moved forwards on their feelings had developed a rapport that would be difficult to move onto.

But then again he could already hear Mark in his head telling him flat out in that wonderfully dry tone that he adopted for when he thought that Peter was doing something exceptionally stupid that would jeopardise the chances of a conviction. That was not going to happen. He and Anna working together and sleeping together was not going to happen.

It wasn't like you could have everything in life.

Peter was pulled out of his internal musing when he received the phone call that the jury was back. It had taken two hours which all things considering was quick. The verdict was secure. Anna had been her best on the stand, calm and collected despite the fact that Peter had been a wreck. She had looked both the men on trial in the eye and her voice had not wavered even if she had clasped her hands in her lap. Peter knew they were shaking in the same way he knew that every muscle in Anna's body was locked down.

He knew every inch of her. He had enough knowledge to write a book on the wonderful subject that was Anna Valdez.

When the guilty verdict came through he smiled at her. She smiled back but then she turned to hug Laura her dark hair shifting over her shoulder and Peter had to turn around and clench his hands into fists over his knees and try to not show the emotion that was on his face. This had been a long couple of months from that one phone call to where they were now. Justice had been served as Peter would go after the gang leader as soon as he had the evidence too but he couldn't help but take a deep breath to get himself under control so that he didn't do anything stupid like lean over the bench and kiss Anna in full view of the jury, his boss and the judge.

That was a conversation he really didn't need to have with Mark right now.

But it didn't matter. It didn't matter because he had done it. He had put away the people who had hurt her. Peter swallowed standing up and refusing to admit through his grin, how desperately afraid he had been that he would not be able to do that.

* * *

That night Anna came back to his apartment and they ordered in. Somewhere between eating the spring rolls and the duck pancakes Peter had the courage to ask her.

"You know you don't have to leave here? I mean…if you wanted to stay. You could. Even if you wanted to take it slow, I want to take you on a date and all but…I'm used to living with you, gonna take me a bit of time to not."

Anna paused dipping her spring roll into the chilli sauce.

"I was thinking about that too." She said thoughtfully. "I nearly died. And I'm tired of taking things to slow because I'm afraid. I want to live my life. With you. regardless of what happens in a years' time or ten years or twenty years I want to be with you right now. Live in the moment and all. So if you don't mind me sticking around then yeah…yeah"

Peter kissed her then food in front of them be damned. He could always reheat it up later after all.

Happy endings were rare in this world Peter thought that night as he and Anna clutched each other in bed. He could still see the bruises that were slowly turning yellow and fading, he imagined he would see them for a very long time even after they were gone. He thought that perhaps Anna was right. Now it was time to start trusting that something good was going to happen.

That something good could happen. That there was a balance between the good and the bad. It had taken something bad to happen for the good to come out of it.

Peter decided to stop that thought before he started sounding like a damn greeting card.

He looked at the sleeping woman next to him.

There was always time to talk tomorrow.

* * *

**And I wish all of you amazing readers a very Merry and Happy Christmas and a Happy and Safe New Year! **

**Thank you all so much. **

**Enjoy. **


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